104: Dr. Torrie Thompson, Functional Medicine Practitioner: Are Parasites Keeping You Up At Night? Here’s How To Tell & What To Do About It

Welcome to the Sleep is a Skill podcast. My name is Mollie McGlocklin, and I own a company that optimizes sleep through technology, accountability and behavioral change. Each week I'll be interviewing world class experts, ranging from doctors, innovators, and thought leaders to give actionable tips and strategies that you can implement to become a more skillful sleeper.

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Let's jump into your dose of practical sleep training.

Welcome to the Sleep is a Skill podcast. I am your host, Mollie Eastman, and today we are gonna be diving into the topic of parasites and sleep, Lyme disease and sleep. Tricky cases and tricky reasons that people are dealing with sleep difficulties that we might. First glance have considered who is going to be guiding us on this topic today.

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None other than Dr. Torrie Thompson. Dr. Torrie is actually a good friend of mine. I have had the pleasure and honor of getting to know her over the years, and now we are neighbors in Austin, and I think you're gonna enjoy her just as much as I do. And first I wanna read a little bit about. Dr. Torrie Thompson is known around the world as a leading functional medicine practitioner that solves some of the toughest client cases.

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This passion to help others stems from her own health struggles For nearly a decade, she visited over 20 doctors looking for the cause for her strange symptoms and a solution to help her heal and get. Back after years of failed traditional medical treatments and several incorrect diagnoses, she finally took her health into her own hands and discovered she had Lyme disease.

She successfully used holistic medicine approaches that included dietary modifications, supplementation, and lifestyle changes to help her finally regain her health. Not only did she get her health and her life back, but along the way learned how holistic medicine and modifications to both diet and lifestyle can help reverse and prevent many diseases.

Now, Dr. Torrie specializes in helping people find the root cause of their symptoms that have stumped other practitioners. She has helped find answers for clients with mold, sickness, Lyme disease, gut infections, autoimmune diseases. Fibromyalgia, depression, anxiety, chronic fatigue, hormone imbalance, infertility, and so much more.

Dr. Torrie believes that when toxins and infections are removed and mindset is addressed, the body can heal itself. Now, I think you're gonna really enjoy today's conversation. Let's jump in. So I get a lot of questions around sleep supplements, and I'm very hesitant to just throw out a whole laundry list of possibilities.

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One, I don't think it's the most responsible thing to do. I really do believe in testing to see what types of supplements make sense for you. And two, because I really truly believe that most of the things that you can do to improve your sleep are behavioral, psychological, environmental in nature, and often don't cost a.

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However, there is one supplement that I personally take every day and that I do feel quite comfortable with suggesting for most individuals to experiment with because of couple of reasons. It's high safety profile and high rates of deficiencies in our modern society. Some put the numbers as somewhere around 80% of the population being deficient in this one area, and that is magnesium.

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So magnesium has been called the calming mineral, and some report that magnesium can increase gaba, which encourages relaxation on a cellular level, which is critical for sleep. Magnesium also plays a key role in regulating our body's stress response system. Those with magnesium deficiency usually have higher anxiety and stress levels, which negatively impacts sleep As.

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Now before you go out and buy a magnesium supplement, it's important to understand that most magnesium products out there are either synthetic or they only have one to two forms of magnesium. When in reality, your body needs all seven forms of this essential sleep mineral. So that's why I recommend a product from my friends over at Bio Optimizers.

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They have created something called the Magnesium Breakthrough, and taking this magnesium before bed helps you relax and wake up, refresh and energize. And while we don't recommend that you go two nuts on looking at all the sleep stage classifications on all your wearables. I will share anecdotally that many clients have reported improvements in their deep sleep trend numbers.

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Again, I don't want you going nuts on the sleep stage classification numbers on your wearables, but I do wanna let you know about that because I know that many of you do reach out on questions of how to improve your deep sleep. So I also love that bio optimizers offers free shipping on select orders, and they offer a 365 day money back guarantee on all their products.

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Plus they have a customer satisfaction rating of 99.3%. Very impressive, and you can get 10% off magnesium breakthrough. Again, this is the same magnesium that I use every single. And finally you can get 10% off magnesium breakthrough. Again, that's the magnesium supplement that I use every single night by going to www dot mag m a g.

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So mag breakthrough.com/sleep as a skill, and be sure to use the code sleep as a skill for 10%. And welcome to the Sleep is a Skill podcast. This podcast, I know I gotta stop saying this line where I'm like, I'm so excited to have this person, but I genuinely am. So excited to have this person on Dr. Torrie Thompson, a dear friend, but also just someone that I really respect her, her take on things that we can do to make ourselves really healthy and optimal, and really on the cutting edge of things.

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And our intention for today's podcast is to go in on all things parasites and sleep. So Dr. Torrie Thompson, thank you so much for joining. Thank you for having me. Yay. Oh, this is gonna be a lot of fun. And we've had conversations before hitting record, and we've discussed this topic a few different times, and so I've gotten some insight into your opinions on this and I cannot wait to share it with the listeners.

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So let's jump in one. Just sharing a little bit of a background, how did you find yourself in this profession of one of helping to support people with their health and wellness, but out of the box in a way that's really getting to the root cause, and how might that kind of be a part of this conversation on helping to support sleep?

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Yeah, I got into this because I was super, super sick most of my life. From the time I was a kid up until my late twenties, I was super sick and exhausted. Everything. I, we went to doctors all across the country. We tried medication, surgery. But couldn't figure it out. And one of my symptoms was horrible, insomnia.

And so it was one of those things where I kind of got to this point where either I was ready to be done or I was gonna figure it out. And so I was in school and I decided, we're gonna figure this out. And so I started studying Eastern and you know, Chinese and Ayurvedic herbs and these different practices and ended up figuring out that I had some nasty infections.

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I had Lyme disease. Basically gotten into my brain, laid dormant for 15 years, had some parasites, and then some random bacterial infections. And so at that point, really western medicine had failed me so much. I wasn't even willing to try it. So I started using herbs and learning about different holistic, natural ways that I could clear my body of these nasty infections without the side effects and ultimately regain my health back.

And so over the course of. Two years I did that. I reversed all my symptoms and got to back to being healthy and then decided that I was going to go in that direction and really specialize in holistic remediation of these nasty infections. Wow. Okay. Well one, thank you for sharing your backstory and this is actually great for me cuz I didn't know the full kind of course that you've been on and certainly wasn't fully aware of how much of a role insomnia had also played in that.

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So thank you for kind of giving that and so you absolutely understand the upset that that can bring in people's lives in alignment with those things you dealt with, with your health. So as it relates, Sleep and you mentioned parasites. I am very excited to help kind of just 1 0 1 and then, you know, certainly feeling free to get more advanced.

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What do we need to know? Parasites and sleep. Why are they connected? How are they connected? Phyllis in so parasites, I think one of the biggest things to hit on with parasites is they are common. It's estimated the C d C estimates that about 50% of Americans have parasites actively. I would go as far to say as, it's probably 85, 90%.

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Um, I just assume everyone I work with has them, and not all parasites are giant worms, right? We see those, you know, huge tape worms, but most of 'em are so small you would never even know they're there. And so, Really like taking the stigma away from parasites I think is one key that has to be done. And then I would say probably the most common symptom across the board, aside from maybe brain fog and gut issues with parasites come sleep, whether it's waking up not feeling rested or just.

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Some form of insomnia. It seems to be pretty much across the board. People are dealing with sleep issues, and so these parasites, they're so good at altering things in our body to make the environment for them extremely. Comfortable, right? Mm-hmm. They have to survive in our bodies. And so the way they do that is they play with a lot of the chemicals in the body, and so when they play with chemicals, it will essentially, for example, we have serotonin, right?

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Serotonin is huge for depression, anxiety, but then sleep cuz it makes our melatonin. Well, when we look at parasites, Parasites have serotonin receptors as well, and so they actually have receptors for a lot of our brain chemistry, and it's, it's one of the reasons they can play with it so well, and so they will actually bind our serotonin to help them move, to help them reproduce, and it enhance, basically enhances all of their function.

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It's kind of like a, like a super supplement for them, right? Mm-hmm. So what they do is when they bind our serotonin, it tanks our natural serotonin. We can't use it, and so then we start seeing serotonin low. You look at dopamine, and dopamine is like our reward center, kind of that happy neurotransmitter.

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What they'll do with dopamine is they will increase our dopamine levels because if dopamine gets high, our immune system gets turned down. And so when your dopamine gets high, it's very excitatory to the. You don't sleep, then your immune system is lower, and so you can't act, the immune system won't actively go in and kill parasites, and so they play with these different neurotransmitters.

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They do it with gaba, they do it with acetylcholine, they do it with all of them in some form, and it is the perfect recipe for horrible sleep. Mm. Wow, that's very interesting. Okay, and so you see this kind of run its course is, are there ebbs and flows for people with, is it periods when parasites are particularly active or things to be aware of?

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What do we see there? Absolutely. And I know this is gonna sound very woowoo, but around the full moon. Yeah. These guys reproduce more heavily and it truly has to do with, they reproduce it very cyclically. And so around the full moon, we tend to see a flare up of symptoms. And so it kind of comes back to the old, you know, you hear people get crazy around the full moon.

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Yeah. Cause neurotransmitters get imbalanced a. To do with these parasites. Wow. So interesting. Okay. And so there's can be that seasonality or kind of the, a particular rhythm kind of around the inre rhythm as it relates to the moon, and are there times of day when they're more active or night things for us to kind of be aware of as far as being on the lookout for.

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Yeah, so they're metabolically active at night, so again, they'll play with our temperature, they'll do things, and when they're metabolically active, they're producing waste, which becomes inflammatory to the body. And so it's another factor that will go in and affect people's sleep. Wow, so interesting.

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Okay, so you're looking at new clients coming in or patients coming in to work with you, and you're making the assumption that most of these individuals probably have parasites now, and for many people listening, they might say, okay, maybe. But I would still like to have some sort of tester verification around this.

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What do you do to satisfy that? Absolutely. I'm like the testing queen. I am like, let's not guess about anything. Let's test. Love that. One of the things though is people wanna come in and they wanna stool test because that's kind of been the gold standard Yeah. Of functional medicine for as long as I can remember.

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But when you're looking at a. Stool test, if you've ever done it, you know the horror of having to go through it. Yes. Not fun. No, it's not fun. You're essentially hoping that you're lucky. Right. So in a stool test, you will have a bowel movement into a little sample and then have to dig through it. Mm-hmm.

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What you're hoping for is that you get lucky enough that one, a parasite left. Its comfortable. In your gut. And two, the the little piece that you dug out that made it in the sample cup had that parasite in it. Mm-hmm. And so if you don't happen to get it, you could be full of parasites. And just not lucky that in that sample you got a, you know, a worm that was detectable.

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So I've moved almost completely away from stool testing looking for parasites and use my favorite test as the organic acids test. Mm-hmm. So, urine test, and instead of looking for the bug itself, what we look for is the metabolites, the waste of it. Right. So we know that when there's para. Things like ammonia get high.

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So we can see elevated ammonia and we can see a lot of the, the lactic acid and these different metabolites or waste of the parasites that would kind of show us that there's a possible pattern of parasites. And then some of it I have to tell people is just assuming that they're there. Right? It's very, yeah.

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You know, you just have to kind of assume that they're there. If you do all this testing and it's not, it doesn't, To throw in a little bit of a parasite cleanse. You can do parasite cleansing, wall clean, you know, getting rid of mold or bacteria. But truly the testing has evolved so well that the organic acids will show you the patterns.

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We can look at your dopamine, your serotonin. We can see all these things that would be altered due to parasites. Wow, so interesting. And for anyone listening that's still like, okay, but I haven't traveled internationally. I eat a quote unquote clean diet, whatever that looks like to them. Can you help sort through the type of person that might be running amuck with parasites?

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Everyone. So parasites are common in vegetables, right? Anything that grows out, you know, like lettuce, celery, anything that, there's lots of crevices where these bugs can get into. They're loaded with parasites. Do you have a dog? Dogs tend to pass parasites to people all the time. Do you go swimming in lakes and these bodies of water that can have parasites?

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I mean, it is truly like, Do you go out of your house and have a pet, then yes, you probably have a parasite. So they're, they're so common that it's one of those things that it's truly affects pretty much everyone. Got it. Okay. So from that place, one, just wanna check in. Do we have any idea about the length of time that we might have these parasites?

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Can we be infected with these parasites for years? Is it kind of a coming and going multiple parasites? How do we think about. Kind of both. You can have 'em for years and because the testing doesn't tell us when you got something, we kind of have to, yeah. Play around and go, okay, well it was likely here, likely there.

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But one of the things that parasites do that makes it hard for our body to get rid of them is they create something called biofilm. Mm-hmm. And biofilm is really fascinating because it's, it's what allows them to survive in our body. And you know, when you pick up a rock in a stream that's slime layer on the top.

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Yes. That's biofilm. And so what it does in, in the rock is it allows the bacteria on the rock to not get washed away in the stream. Mm-hmm. And so parasites are one of the infections that can produce biofilm in our gut. And so it creates this slimy substance around them. And so essentially your immune system will go by and it's like, I feel like something's wrong, but I can't find it.

And then eventually the immune system's like, well, couldn't find it. So they just give up. And so these biofilm layer. It can be super diverse with parasites, but then if you come in contact with like toxins or mold or other bacteria, they'll also go into this biofilm. So you end up with this very diverse ecosystem of nasty bugs that can live there for a really, really long time.

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Mm. And then it's usually like, there might be a life stress or you know, something will kind of push you over the edge and then you start experiencing symptoms. But you could have had these bugs laying dormant for a really long time. Mm. Okay. So assuming the listener is saying, all right, I'm willing to consider that maybe I do have these parasites, or full on like, yes, this is me.

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What are some of the things that we can think about of the actions that we can take to remove these parasites and help restore our health and our sleep? So the biggest thing is really getting rid of them. Right. And so doing it, and I always say you can do parasite cleanses on your own, but it is always better to do it with someone that knows what they're doing.

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Yes. Cause they don't like to die. Yeah. And so they will make it very, very uncomfortable if you start killing them. And then haven't done the right steps. So find someone to work with that can walk you through a parasite cleanse. And really in that you can rid yourself of any bugs that don't belong, but work with somebody that knows what to do.

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And then you can add in other things to support detox, immune boosting things to get your immune system to fight off things on its own. And then coffee enemas, they're one of my my favorite things. I've heard you talk about these a lot and I still am somewhat intimidated by coffee enemas, so hopefully you can help share more on that one too.

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Yes, I will say they have a horrible stigma to them, but they're fantastic for the gut, the liver. But one of the things that, you know, coffee enemas do is. When the coffee goes into the liver, the liver will basically dump its toxins and it will, it will stimulate the gut to move faster. And we call this hyper peristalsis, right?

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The gut contracts faster, and when that happens, that biofilm that is holding the parasites will get naturally sloughed off. And so you'll start to release biofilm without doing anything. And so you can start to get rid of their house. And when you get rid of their house, you can start to get rid of them.

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And. When I started doing coffee enemas, I started doing them without doing a parasite cleanse, without taking any supplements that would've killed, and that was actually when I, I had one of the big parasites. I was able to get rid of a tape worm without. Doing. Oh, wow. Any sort of killing that's very abnormal and it's not necessarily how it should be, but you can actually make a lot of progress in the gut with doing coffee enemas.

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Okay, so on the coffee enema topic, tell us. What is the i, I know you can't tell us exactly what this looks like cuz that's a in-depth thing, but how often, maybe any words of encouragement if anyone is like me and feels very like, how does this work? This seems like a lot. Tell us more. Yeah, so I mean they're, once you do the first one, it's like a breeze.

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Right? Okay. You know, it's just a small little kit that you'll do. They look far worse than they are, but it is essentially you can take baby steps with them and one of the. Things that I cannot stress enough is you have to be hydrated. Hmm. Cause it's coffee going in through your blood to the liver. If you're dehydrated, you'll absorb the coffee and the caffeine and you'll get the worst headache you've ever had.

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So just make sure you're hydrated before you do it. But again, the stigma around them is far scarier than they, than they actually are. And just do, to start, try one a month. It really can just be one of your maintenance detox tools. If you. Really deep into wanting to, you know, cleanse your liver and your gut and cleanse some parasites.

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I would say, you know, one every other week is a good, a good place to start. Okay. So someone is, believes they have parasites. They could start low threshold would be starting once a month, potentially moving to every other week. Are there ever times that you'd suggest more than that to really kind of expedite all.

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Yeah, I have some people that I work with that are really, really sick. Okay. And because of the way that coffee enemas will basically get your body to produce glutathione, which is anti-inflammatory, and it, they have so many different benefits. If I have someone that they're barely functioning and the coffee enemas are allowing them to function through the day, then we'll do, you know, two, three a week.

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But again, that's with me. They're not literally there but me. Yes, with that would be weird. Me with them copy animal jokes, me making sure that everything's all right, that they're taking proper, you know, hydration precautions and remineralizing and all of that. But most people don't need that. It's truly like one a week is more than enough for someone that's really going through it.

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That's why I like the one every other week tends to be like the perfect, the perfect thing for your average person. Okay. What about Hfi suppositories? I've heard some people rave about those. Do you think that that's helpful? Not so much. I have not personally used them. I have not recommended them, but I would say just based off the biochemistry.

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No. No. Okay. No kind of shortcuts for certain things like that. Yeah, totally get that. Okay, so we've got the different steps that we can take. Are there other things that we should be bringing in during this process and about how long does this process look like? And I'm sure it's obviously very bio individual, but kind of a gauge for what is the time commitment, diet, other modalities, anything to be.

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It is one of the hardest things. It's very bio individualized, right? What else is going on with them? But a rule of thumb is you really can't clear any bug in less than three months, like bare minimum. Usually it's you're looking at somewhere in the six month. Window, but one of the things is it doesn't mean that it's gonna take you six months to feel better.

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Mm-hmm. Usually within 30 to 60 days of starting to kill things, people are feeling, you know, better. Starting to see a little bit of the benefit of it. It's not a 180, but they're starting to be like, okay, we're headed in the right direction. I always pair a really clean diet with it because we wanna lower inflammation as much as possible.

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So I pull gluten, dairy, soy, sugar, alcohol, caffeine, corn, you know, all the All the things. Yeah. And really go very anti-inflammatory. Lots of vegetables, lots of fats. Really, really clean, clean water. Mm-hmm. And the stricter someone is with diet. The faster we can push them along. And so we go really tight there and then usually we're working on other things at the same time.

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Was there toxins, was there mold? And that can definitely lengthen the process, but I'd say three to six months is a good window of just a parasite cleanse. Okay. And you mentioned in that whole list, cause I feel like I'm pretty dialed in on that particular list except for the coffee, you know, my love of coffee.

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So it sounds like we can have coffee through one means, but not the other means for Exactly. Exactly. And I have a big coffee fan too. I mean, it's something that I think once you're out of the red zone, you can absolutely add it in. But coffee. It's hard on the gut. Yeah. And so it, it's just another thing of, you know, we don't want another trigger in there.

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And so I have some people that will tell me I will not give up coffee. And I'm like, okay, well it's just gonna slow you down a little bit. Yeah. But it is one of those, it's just so hard on the gut. It, it does, you know, kind of push a little bit of leaky gut when there's other pathologies laying there. Mm.

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So I tend to say no oral. Sure. Does that also apply? This is the caffeine addict in me. Does that apply to teas or is there any work around? Tea is all right. Um, especially green teas because I look at the antioxidants that they have is, is very beneficial. And then one of the things is people always be like, well, can I do decaffeinated coffee?

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That's always the caveat. And while technically decaffeinated coffee wouldn't really affect the gut as much because of the caffeine. I'm very anti decaff because of the chemicals they use to de decaffeinate it. It's really loaded with mold. Okay, we're gonna have to have you on a, for like a part two or something.

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Okay. So, so with that, and actually I wanted to circle back with one quick thing about the coffee enemas, because one thing I liked in one of our previous conversations is that you shared that this also doesn't have to be a big barrier to entry, even cost wise or what have you. Uh, I think you said you have a favorite, you know, like $30 kit or something along those lines.

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Is that. Yeah, it's an Amazon kit. I think it's $32. Amazing. Wanna buy. There's special coffee. You don't, you know, take Starbucks coffee and use that. It's going to be, you want us to be organic, mold free, and then it'll just say, enema coffee. And you want a light to medium roast. That's really the only thing, but it is so inexpensive and you can actually get some pretty good results with it.

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Okay. I missed the enema coffee part. Okay. So then there's a particular type of enema coffee. Is that also available on Amazon? It is. You can Amazon that. Oh my god, Amazon. Okay. Parasite cleansing facilitators. Amazing. So, In this conversation around parasites, are there things that help us? So we're committing to at least that three month mark, if not more, depending on the person.

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Are there certain things that indicate that we're kind of on the right path? Are there markers that you're looking for? Metrics, subjective experience, anything to call out there? I mean, it's always watching someone's symptoms, right? And when you kill anything in the body, you might notice a little uptick in your symptoms.

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Yeah. For a few days. And then usually you start to start to feel relief. So we're looking at symptoms always. And then we can redo the organic acids. And then really easily, you can do a blood test and there's a marker on a CBC that's called eosinophils, and they become elevated when you are either dealing.

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A lot of food allergies or parasites, and so we can watch eosinophils and watch them come back into a normal range and pair that with symptoms and pair that with the organic acids and kind of pink the full picture. Do you bring anything in the mix, like peptides or any of that along the way, or do you more tend to keep it um, as natural as possible?

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How do you think about. I like peptides for optimization. For me, I look at, uh, we have to kill first and I often see people will try to heal their leaky gut. Yes. It's kinda, I hear all the time, but it's like if you fell down on asphalt and you had road rash in your arm, you're not gonna just let that heal.

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Right? Yeah. If you want to clean out the cut, get rid of all the rocks and all of that. And so that's what we go do with the guts. Clean out the gut and then you can. Peptides, as you know, fantastic gut healing and optimization, but I stick more with the herbs and supporting the body, you know, supporting the liver and detox in the immune system while we kill, and then we go into optimization after that.

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Okay. Awesome. And when you said clean diet, I know that's relative and it's probably a longer conversation, but is there anything else noteworthy? I know you mentioned kind of the clear things to avoid. Are there any caveats or things that people are surprised by that you also have them either eliminate or be mindful of any call outs?

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Fish. That's one that I tend to not encourage a ton of, unless they can get super clean fish that isn't, you know, one of the big fish that's carrying radiation and mercury. And then. That's kinda the one that will surprise people, but for the most part, nothing crazy. I go really big. I'm a really big believer in organic and non G M O food, but nothing too crazy.

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Okay. And you also mentioned your interest in herbs. Are there particular herbs that you bring into this conversation that we didn't touch on? There's a lot. Okay. That's kinda longer. Yeah. You've got different herbs that kill different bugs and so I use blends that have a bunch of stacked herbs in it, and so you can kill a bunch of different types of parasites and types of bacteria and fungi with stacked herbs.

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Okay. Is there, uh, Particular type that's on the market that you suggest? Or is that, does that go back to what you originally said, which is you really wanna work with someone that's aware and fully educated on this topic to really guide you before just throwing all kinds of herbs at your problems?

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Absolutely. Yeah. I feel like people get, then you get the supplement graveyard, right? Of all the supplements died that didn't work. Uhhuh, oh God. So yeah, it's definitely, you know, you wanna work with someone that knows. What supplements to use or what herbs to use for different bugs rather than just kind of the parasite ones you can find on the internet.

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Okay. Supplement graveyard. That's amazing. I definitely have one of those. Totally get that. And I think many people. Are looking for those cures and fixits and what have you. So I appreciate you being responsible on that piece and not just, oh, try this and you'll see that online of this, we'll solve it.

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Just mimosa, pica or whatever. That's it. Yeah, exactly. Okay. So, um, Clearly you have a, um, personal interest in your health wellbeing. You had that path where it was difficult for you to experience what life looks like, uh, really not feeling well. And now being on the other side of that, would love to learn from you around how you manage some of your own day-to-day things with a couple questions that we ask everyone that comes on here.

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The first one is what might we see with your nightly sleep routine that would be noteworthy? I'm sure it shifts or changes when you're traveling or what have you, but what might be there? I have a very simple one, and I've learned that, okay, when I get complex, I don't do it. Yeah. So I have. My nighttime routine is making sure all of my supplements are taken at least an hour and a half before bed.

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Mm-hmm. Um, we don't wanna be digesting those. Then I'll usually do, um, I'll do a magnesium and like a California poppy little kind of drink that relaxes me. Mm. No screen time within an hour before bed. Make sure the house is cool. Make sure my aura ring is charged. Yay. And then, you know, winding down with whether it's journaling or meditation or something, but right before I go to bed, but I'm super simple on it and I am very good at it because of the simplicity.

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Good. I love that. Yeah. I think, um, I just had another guest on and they were saying something similar that when we start getting so rigid about how these things look and layered, it just clearly not sustainable. So I appreciate that. And then how does that spill into your morning routine? Is that kind of in alignment there?

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Yeah. And I, I was one of those people where I used to be so rigid when I was sick about my schedule. Yeah. Like hard bedtime. And so I've gotten very loose with it, but I do it. Yeah. So it's, but my morning routine, I don't use an alarm anymore unless it's like a weird. Four o'clock flight. Yeah, no more, no more alarm in the morning.

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Wake up naturally kind of with the sun and then, you know, meditation and journaling right off the bats before getting up and, uh, making my coffee. Yes. And so it's usually just a little bit of time to myself kind of as I wake up, so it's nothing too rigid. Mm. Great. Yeah, I was seeing a theme here. That's fantastic.

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And as far as ambiance or things that we might see, or maybe not see what may be on your nightstand or even proverbial nightstand or ambiance, s gadgets, any of that. I'm, I'm pretty simple with that as well. Yeah. You know, shopper with what I'm saying. Yes. Right on. I'm weird about lighting. That's something that, you know, with nighttime, I'm, I do not like harsh lights and so I have a, a night light lamp on my nightstand that mm-hmm.

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Is, it's very, very, very dim at night. So there's a little bit of light when I need to walk in there. I've got diffuser. Usually the things will be diffusing and that's pretty much it. I mean there isn. Too much tech because I tend to go more in the obsessive phase of it. Yes, sure. And so even, even with the AA ring, I have to be very, very mindful of not letting it dictate my day based on how my number read.

Great. I love that point. I wanna say we'd had a conversation before and I think you maybe had mentioned times of kind of data sabbaticals, or, is that right? Oh yeah. Taking some time off. Okay. Is that a regular thing that you do or how does that work? I do. I tend to go, I'll go tech for a while, especially if I'm working on something, right?

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Yeah. If I'm detoxing or I wanna use the tech to show me data, yeah, I'm all for it. But if I am kind of in a, in a really good place, either my stress is good or I'm on vacation, I go usually. Data free. I know my body well enough. I know if I got a good night of sleep. Yeah. I don't need an aura ring to tell you that.

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Yes, yes. And so I'll usually go tech free usually for a few months at a time and then come back to it and I kind of go cyclically. And then if, you know, I'm very unattached to in my monitor, I'm off of it. Yeah. Great. Okay. I appreciate that. And then as far as our last question, which is in your whole life, what would you say has made the biggest change for your sleep game or maybe the biggest aha moment you've had in managing your sleep?

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In my whole life? In your whole life, no pressure. That was a huge question. I would say it was a long, long time ago and it was really learning about winding down and getting off a phone computer. Harsh lighting. I mean, I think lighting plays a huge role in, in sleep for people that have no, you know, they're very new to the this work.

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And then not being out. I used to be like, I loved being around people and so I learned that I needed time to myself to wind down before bed. Yes. And those changes, I think made the biggest impact. I know they're very, very simple and very basic, but back in the day, that was like a game changer for me. No, that's huge.

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And actually in the practical application of that, how have you found or this evolving of your ability to. Ensure that that goes that way. So like, you know, making sure that you do turn down the lights at the particular time, maybe leave the party at the particular time, et cetera, et cetera. Is there just a structure for yourself?

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Do you feel like I've seen for a lot of people, and I've also sharing with you that newly being in Austin, tons of new opportunities and activities and suddenly I'm having to check myself of like, oh geez. Uh, lower reign in the, the social activities. So how do you keep that balance? And also one of the things we hear from clients, Not wanting to feel like the weirdo leaving the party at a particular time, not wanting to be like, you know, boring or what have you.

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What do you say to all that? I think that is very valid. All of it? Yes. And so one of the things is when I'm home, I have all my lights as smart lights and they all, as the sun's going down, they all dim. Yeah. And so my house is very, very dark and then all light candles and stuff. So it's just, you know, very little light at night.

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That is good. Cause I don't have to think about it. And then being out and being with people. Yeah. I'm very blessed in that I hang out with people that have very similar schedules to me. Love it. Yeah. It'll be like nine o'clock and everyone's like, well, it's getting pretty late. Ah, love it. Yes. Like-minded individuals.

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Sure. Exactly. But if I'm not in that instance, I usually will have like a hard cutoff, especially if I know I have an early morning. I'll say, okay, by 10 I need to leave. But. If I'm staying out later and I'm, especially if I'm driving home, I'll be very mindful of like turning off a lot of the lights in the car, not listening to the radio and kind of winding down in the car.

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So once I get home I can, you know, transition to going to bed a lot better. So amplifying to be in a, you know, social setting. So it's sometimes. Suck it up and it, it is what it is and your sleep is not gonna be great. But I try to minimize that the best I can. I love that. Thank you for that. Cause to your point, these things can be like, oh sure that, that makes sense.

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But it's the doing of it and actually envisioning ourselves as kind of creating that new identity of someone that is able to take a stand for health and wellbeing in a particular way. And sometimes taking a judgment call and you know, socializing a. Later and kind of striking that balance. Uh, absolutely.

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Yeah. That's great. So did we miss anything in this conversation around parasites and sleep? Anything that we left out that you wanna make sure we underscore or, I don't think so. We pretty much hit it all. Yay. Okay. Fantastic. Good. And to your point, it's not necessarily going to be all fleshed out on a quick podcast, all the details because you also need that accompaniment of someone that's done this before and can really guide you so that you're not wasting all this extra time and energy and upset.

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So yeah, I think that's, uh, important thing too that you mentioned. So anyone listening that. Interested in what you're creating, what you're putting out there, how to potentially work with you if they're struggling. And certainly I know that you're, you have an interest and specialty in parasites, but it's not the whole story.

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You have a lot that you bring to the table with individuals. So what does that all look like? How would they be able to be a part of what you got? Absolutely. Yeah, I, you can follow me on Instagram. My Instagram is dr tory thompson.com. You can also go to my website, which is dr tory thompson.com. Yes. And um, you can sign up for my newsletters.

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I put out a newsletter every week on this kind of information, and usually it's just informative on parasites and infections. And then as far as, you know, working with me, schedule a visit and we can see if this is something. Would help you. And if not, you know, if it's not me, I can point you in the right direction.

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But it's definitely, you know, we can do some testing and figure out what is there, what is not, and address what needs to be taken out. Wow, great. Okay. I love that. Well, just thank you so much for taking the time to be here and sharing your knowledge. This is fantastic and I know that you have that personal mission for yourself and others, and now you get to be an example of what's possible and someone that does get great sleep consistently and has been able to really work that all through.

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So that's really great to see. I appreciate that. Well, thank you for having me. Awesome. Thank you. You've been listening to The Sleep Is A Skill Podcast, the number one podcast for people who wanna take their sleep skills to the next level. Every Monday, I send out something that I call Mollie Monday Obsessions, continuing everything that I'm obsessing over in the world of sleep.

Head on over to sleep as a skill.com to sign up.

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